April 16, 2016 – A late spring snow storm and the New York Red Bulls rolled into Dick’s Sporting Goods Park to take on the Colorado Rapids and Jermaine Jones in his first game of eligibility following his six game suspension.
Jones was named in the starting line up in the number 10 spot, pushing Marco Pappa out to the right wing. Jones did play in the legendary “Snow-Classico” when the United States Men’s National Team faced Costa Rico, on the same pitch, while qualifying for the 2014 World Cup. Sam Cronin and Michael Azira kept their places in the midfield with Dillon Powers on the bench making room for Jones.
For New York, Bradley Wright-Phillips started up top in front of Mike Grella, Sacha Kljestan and Alex Muyl in midfield. The Red Bulls came to Colorado trying to turn around the early season form that’s seen them lose five of their first six matches.
The Rapids ground crew did well to make the pitch playable (Photo Credit: Corbin Elliott)
The match started about 20 minutes later than planned as the grounds crew needed extra time to clear snow from the pitch. It got a bit cagey as both teams seemed hesitant to go all out on the snowy pitch. Several players slipped early on, but within ten minutes the game settled in.\
Colorado had the better of control and possession, especially when Marco Pappa, Jermaine Jones and Michael Azira linked up. One of those three players always seemed to be open and New York appeared frustrated by not being able to get into the game more.
Colorado earned several corners but were unable to capitalize on those chances. In the 21st minute Rapid defender Mekeil Williams sent a low hard cross into the box from the right wing and Jermaine Jones found himself with the ball in the middle of the box. The Rapids debutante kept his cool and drove the ball past the diving figure of Luis Robles. The crowd at Dick’s Sporting Goods, at least the few that were brave enough to venture out into the snow, were in full voice cheering on their new arrival’s first goal for the Burgundy Boys.
Jermaine Jones celebrates after scoring his first goal for the Rapids. (Photo Credit: Corbin Elliott)
The game became a bit chippy after the Colorado goal. At one point Red Bulls central midfielder Sacha Kljestan took offense with a Jermaine Jones tackle and pushed the Rapids player to the ground. The referee didn’t show a card, motioning that he believed Jones fell dramatically, though live it did appear that a combination of the slippery conditions as well as the push were enough to earnestly drop the U.S. Men’s international.
The Rapids created another chance in the 35th minute when Jones saw a hard driven shot saved by New York keeper Robles, the rebound was headed home by Luis Solignac, but the linesmen’s flag went up as Solignac was offside.
The half time break was closer to half an hour than the customary 15 minutes as the grounds crew had plenty of work to do to make the pitch playable again. The snow and wind seemed to increase at halftime and the spring snow accumulated much easier as the evening wore on.
In the 52nd minute Marco Pappa had a shot deflect off of New York’s left post but the Red Bulls were the brighter of the two sides at the restart. They kept constant pressure on Colorado and after a succession of corners for the Red Bulls they capitalized in the 60th minute. Sacha Kljestan sent a corner in from the right side of the Rapid goal only for Marc Burch to clear the ball right back to Kljestan’s feet. The Huntington Beach native sent the ball in again, to the back post, where defender Ronald Zubar headed the ball sweetly past Rapid keeper Zac MacMath.
After the Red Bull goal the gamed evened out again with both teams looking sharp. The snow started to pile up and although New York seemed to prefer to challenge the Rapid back line with long balls over the top, Colorado stuck with their ball on the ground passing to try and open the Red Bull defense up.
In the 79th minute Colorado almost went in front when Marc Burch sent in a long pass from a dead ball situation. The ball was knocked out of the box by Robles, fell to Sam Cronin who found substitute Dominique Badji unmarked six yards from goal. Badji headed the ball on goal but right at New York keeper Robles who saved the shot.
Frustration began to mount at that point and with just ten minutes left and the snow piling up more and more, the match looked like it would end in a draw. But just three minutes later, in the 82nd minute, Jermaine Jones sent a lovely weighted through ball into the New York box and Dominique Badji drove the ball across the face of goal, just beating Robles, slotting the ball in the right side of goal to return the lead to Colorado. The goal was Badji’s first of the season.
Jermaine Jones was man of the match with a goal and an assist. (Photo Credit: Corbin Elliott)
New York threw everyone forward after that. They put heavy pressure on the Rapid goal but were unable to find an equalizer. Because New York was pushing forward so much Colorado had another chance to score, but Badji saw a similar shot to the one he scored with careen off the inside of the Red Bull post.
After six minutes of stoppage time the whistle went and Colorado maintained their perfect home record for the season while New York recorded their sixth loss in just seven games in 2016.
Colorado Rapids
New York Red Bulls
